Languages of Nigeria

Rare card · No. 70464

There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The two official languages are English (which was the language of Colonial Nigeria) and French (since 1996). The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the colonizing British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century – has now become the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people. The most commonly spoken native languages are Hausa (over 63 million when including second-language, or L2, speakers), Yoruba (over 47 million, including L2 speakers), Igbo (over 33 million, including L2 speakers), Fulfulde (18 million), Ibibio (over 10 million, including L2 speakers), Kanuri (7.6 million), Ijaw cluster (over 5 million), Tiv (4.5 million), and approximately 2 to 3 million each of Nupe, Gbagyi, Edo, Igala, Urhobo, Idoma, and Ogoni. Nigeria's linguistic diversity is a microcosm of much of Africa as a whole, and the country contains languages from the three major purported...

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